While the House dems look to bail-out local school districts or legalize medical marijuana or create their own legal defense funds while taxpayers foot the bill, one member in the Senate set her sights on a bigger prize and a lot of people are going to wish she'd been satisfied with attempts to kill the economy.

Senator Gretchen Whitmer's in the process of building on an almost shockingly liberal voting record during her years across the hall in the House.  Remember, she's looking to succeed the current governor and will be playing to her base liberal constituency, hoping to ride them to a primary victory before inevitably moderating during the general election.  

Perhaps the most shocking bill in Senator Whitmer's portfolio this year is SB0052.  On its face, this legislation eases restrictions on embryonic stem cell research.  Whitmer would like the state to lead the nation in research using living, viable human embryos as guinea pigs.  We've all heard the arguments... there are cures and miracles for the disabled just waiting around the corner if we start killing and experimenting on babies.  Superman will walk again.  Alex Keaton will be able to put his Reagan mask back on.  Etc. etc. etc.  Of course, proponents never want to acknowledge that embryonic stem cell research hasn't yielded a single cure or treatment while adult stem cell research has found nearly one-hundred and continues to find more.

Still, it's an issue that engenders strong feelings on both sides.  It's the sort of issue that can take a man like Mitt Romney and flip his entire view of life upside down, causing him to rethink his position as personally pro-life but publicly pro-choice.  (No, that's not an endorsement.)

Whitmer's bill will engender even stronger feelings, once people read it.  Not only does it permit embryonic stem cell research, it legalizes cloning!  Cloning, she'll tell you, is still prohibited.  What she won't tell you is that she's attempted to change the definition of cloning.

The following comes directly from SB0052.

(a) "Human cloning" means CREATING OR

ATTEMPTING TO CREATE A HUMAN BEING BY USING THE somatic cell

nuclear transfer PROCEDURE FOR THE PURPOSE OF, OR TO IMPLANT, THE RESULTING PRODUCT TO INITIATE A PREGNANCY THAT COULD RESULT IN THE BIRTH OF A HUMAN BEING.

What does that mean in plain English?  Cloning is only illegal if it's used to create a pregnancy.  Want to grow spare parts?  That's OK.  Create a human embryo for the expressed purpose of experimentation that'll kill it?  Sure, that's just fine.

I can't help but think back to the film "The Island."  Ewan McGreggor and Scarlett Johanson play people who discover that they're clones, created and grown in machines specifically to provide a sort of insurance policy for their... well... for their originals.  The movie does a great job of showing just how chilling the world can be when life is created as a product.

This legislation would make what happened in that movie legal.

But life isn't a product.  Human beings can't be created and experimented on and then discarded like they never existed.  It's contrary to the founding principles of this nation and the human conscience to use life this way.  Every life is precious.  Every life is sacred.  

I for one would prefer it if Gretchen Whitmer spent more time playing a state Senator and less time playing God.